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In the next lesson, XVI, the pupil will learn one of the simple uses
of the genitive. He should then be asked what the cases tell him
in liberpueri (being made, of course, to see that, though pueri
might be nom. pl. so far as form goes, it cannot be so here, since liber
must be subject), in magisterreginaefiliam, etc.; and should
then be carried through various exercises similar to those suggested in
connection with the previous lesson. He will also learn in Lesson
XVI about apposition, of which more anon. In Lesson XVII he will
learn about the way of expressing the indirect object of a verb, and should
now be asked what the cases mean in combinations like agricolaenautisviam, nautaagricolisviam, scribapuerolibrum, scribapuerisreginaelibros, agricolapueroscribaeviam, etc.;
and should then have whole sentences given him, and English combinations
and sentences to be put into Latin, as already described.

So constructions are taught one after another, the simplest meaning
of each case being alone given when the case is first dealt with.
Later, other uses of these same cases are taught, and the certainty which
the pupil at first felt in regard to the speaker's meaning when he heard
a given case (say the accusative) now passes away. As early as Lesson
XVI he learned, as we saw, that "a noun used to describe another noun or
pronoun, and meaning the same thing, is put in the same case." At
this point, consequently, he recognizes that there is a double possibility
for a given accusative. Supposing us to take up a sentence beginning
(say) with legatum, the accusative word may turn out to be either
of two things, namely, the object of the verb, or in apposition
to the object of the verb. These two possibilities, and these alone,
should, for a number of weeks, flash through the beginner's mind at sight
or hearing of an accusative. Later, however (Lessons LI and LII),
he will find that certain verbs are of such a nature as to take two
objects, and will have specimens given him. At this point an
accusative has for him three possibilities: it may be, to
the speaker's thought, object, it may be second object, or
it may be an appositive; while if the meaning of the words
is such as to exclude all possibility of the last of these, as, e.g., in
a sentence beginning with mefraudem, the meaning of the combination
is seen at once to be that me is the first object, and fraudem
the second object, of some one of the verbs that need two objects to complete
their thought, e.g. celo. Not long afterward, he will learn
(Lesson LXI) about the accusative of duration of time and extent
of space, and he now must recognize still another possibility for any
accusatives like annos or pedes, but not for a word like
Caesarem or me. Still later, he will add to his repertory
an understanding of the cognate accusative, of the accusative
as subject of an infinitive, etc.

The teacher will keep clearly before the learner's mind that, while
any accusative may be a direct object, or the subject or predicate of an
infinitive, only words of a particular meaning can be used in the expression
of duration of time, etc., and only words of another and an equally particular
meaning can play the part of a cognate accusative, etc. The teacher
would do well to make for himself, as the book progressed, a collection
of short sentences illustrating all the possible kinds of accusatives (as
yet known to the pupil) in which a given word, like Caesarem, annos,
vitam, may occur (and, of course, similar collections for the other
cases); and to run through one of these collections frequently, perhaps
daily, with the class, using no English. Throughout this progress,
it will be noted, nothing has been allowed to
lapse. The way described of looking at all the possible
meanings of (say) an accusative, seen or heard, constitutes a continual
review of the sharpest nature, and, furthermore, of that very persuasive
and pressing kind which looks toward immediate and constant practical use.

Following these methods, the pupil will surely, if the exercises of
translating at hearing and understanding at hearing without translating
are kept up, have obtained, by the time he reaches the end of the book,
the power to catch the force of the accusative constructions, in short
and simple sentences, with correctness and without conscious operations
of reasoning. For his very familiarity with all the possibilities
of accusative constructions for words of one and another meaning will have
brought him into a condition in which, on the one side, he will WAIT,
OPEN-MINDED, for the word or words that shall determine which meaning
the speaker had in his own thought (if, as mostly, those words are yet
to come); and, on the other, will, by a tact now grown unconscious,
INSTINCTIVELY APPREHEND, when the determining
word or words arrive, what that meaning was; in short, he will have
made a good beginning of understanding the Roman language as it was understood
by Roman hearers and Roman readers.

The Art of Reading Latin: How To Teach It. An address delivered before the associated academic principals of the State of New York, December 28, 1886. William Gardner Hale, professor of Latin in Cornell University. 1887. Ginn and Company. Boston.

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